Victoria

On the 8th January, the Mornington Peninsula community once again came together to talk trash and clean up the local Rye beach area as part of the second Seaside Scavenge Festival held in Victoria.

Teaming up with Tangaroa Blue were the Sorrento Water Towers crew, a local group passionate about the ocean and dedicated to raising awareness about plastic pollution, connecting like-minded people and working towards changing our disposable plastic culture.

Rubbish collected on the day was given a new value, becoming currency that allowed volunteers to trade the trash they collected for second-hand clothing that had been generously donated by members of the local community.

As a leading expert in addressing the marine debris issue, Tangaroa Blue Foundation is coordinating Source Reduction Plan workshops in seven council regions around Port Phillip Bay in 2017 (see more details below). You are invited to participate in this exciting project to tackle marine debris & litter at the source.

Cleaning up areas like beaches, waterways, streets and parks is essential to reduce the impacts of marine debris & litter, but this is only a Band-Aid approach to what has become a major environmental issue worldwide. “If all we do is clean-up, that’s all we’ll ever do” - Heidi Taylor, Tangaroa Blue Foundation. The only way of making a real change is analysing where the litter & debris comes from, and finding ways of stopping it ending up in our ocean and rivers in the first place - a Source Reduction Plan.

Join us in 2017 to help find ways to stop the flow of rubbish into Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra River.

The salty crew from Sorrento Watertowers in Victoria ran a beach clean-up event with a twist over the Australia Day long weekend. An idea originally inspired by Seaside Scavenge was adopted and used to create “Trash-Trade”- a day of talking trash, cleaning up the local Rye beachfront area and trading the rubbish that was collected on the beach for second-hand threads donated by the local community. Along with a trading for clothes incentive offered to volunteers, there were also some amazing prizes to be won for those that wanted to take their cleaning skills to the next level.‘Take 3 for the sea’ (i.e 3 pieces of rubbish) was the general currency used for the day, and everyone was encouraged to adopt this approach each time they visit the beach in the future.

On Sunday 29th March local volunteers joined forces with members of Tangaroa Blue Foundation, Friends of Westgate Park, Beach Patrol and Port Phillip EcoCentre to clean-up the banks of the Yarra River in Westgate Park. Sponsored by Phoenix Drinks through their 'Love Your Beach Clean-Up Series', and supported by the Rotary Club of Albert Park who treated volunteers to a free BBQ lunch, the day gave an opportunity for people to explore the beauty of Westgate Park as well as volunteer to help address the issue of marine debris.

The next event will be held on the banks of the Yarra River in Westgate Park in Melbourne on Sunday March 29. This stretch of the the Yarra River is just a couple of kilometres from where it flows into famous Port Phillip Bay.

With close to 100% of the litter found on Port Phillip beaches coming from land-based sources, the Yarra River is one of the main tributaries that links the litter from Melbourne's streets to the debris along the coastline.

The Friends of Westgate Park regularly clean-up this area, but there's always more coming from upstream!